Windows 7 Sins: The case against Microsoft and proprietary software

The new version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, Windows 7,
has the same problem that Vista, XP, and all previous versions have
had -- it's proprietary software. Users are not permitted to share or
modify the Windows software, or examine how it works inside.

The fact that Windows 7 is proprietary means that Microsoft asserts
legal control over its users through a combination of copyrights,
contracts, and patents. Microsoft uses this power to abuse computer
users. At windows7sins.org, the Free Software Foundation lists seven
examples of abuse committed by Microsoft.

Security

"The security of your computer and network depends on two things: what
you do to secure your computer and network, and what everyone else
does to secure their computers and networks. It's not enough for you
to maintain a secure network. If other people don't maintain their
security, we're all more vulnerable to attack. When many unsecure
computers are connected to the Internet, worms spread faster and more
extensively, distributed denial-of-service attacks are easier to
launch, and spammers have more platforms from which to send
e-mail. The more unsecure the average computer on the Internet is,
the more unsecure your computer is."

-- Bruce Schneier

But how do you know your computer is secure? If you're using
proprietary software, you don't! With free software, even if you don't
have the skills to evaluate the software, you can be certain that
someone else can.

Windows has a long history of security vulnerabilities, enabling the
spread of viruses and allowing remote users to take over people's
computers for use in spam-sending botnets. Because the software is
secret, all users are dependent on Microsoft to fix these problems --
but Microsoft has its own security interests at heart, not those of
its users.

In 2005, a vulnerability was discovered that affects all versions of
Windows from Windows 3.0, released in 1990 until Windows Server 2003
R2 from December 2005, with XP and later versions most severely
affected. The problem, which affects the Windows Metafile image
format, a format commonly used for clip-art and other vector
images. Files containing specially crafted 'Escape codes' allow for
arbitrary user-defined function code to be run when displaying the
image files.

Part of the issue of Windows security comes from the fact that that by
default, administrator accounts are used and expected by many
applications -- these adminstrator accounts also allow malware to
attack the operating system.

In free software this would be treated as both a technical
issue and a social problem -- if software needs to do things as an
administrator, it needs a good reason to do so, and if it prevents
users from doing the job without risking their privacy and security,
it is anti-social.

Bill
Gates/Jesus cartoon by Phil Garcia and Don Berry. Verbatim
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